A Shahnama from Transoxiana

Norah M. Titley

Abstract

THE Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books has recently acquired an
unusual, and stylistically rare, illustrated copy of the Shahnama (Book of Kings) by
Firdawsi (Or. 13859). The latter part of the manuscript, which might have included
a colophon, is missing but the miniatures appear to be in the late Timurid style of
Transoxiana of which so little has survived and which has hitherto not been represented
in the collection. Two artists have worked on the manuscript. Artist A in a bold style
with large figures whilst Artist B is responsible for more refined work. The miniatures
by Artist B are forerunners of sixteenth-century Bukhara work before it was influenced
by artists, working in the Later Herat style, who went to Bukhara after the conquest
of Herat by the Shaybanid Uzbeks early in the sixteenth century. This would place
the manuscript in the late fifteenth or very early sixteenth century.